A Long Way Home
by Rochoa
Summary: Kagome Higurashi, daughter of a wealthy banker, finds herself kidnapped and held for ransom by a notorious smuggler. Now, the only way she can escape is with her father's cooperation and the aid of...her doggy-eared kidnapper?
1. The Jewel

**A Long Way Home**

Summary: Kagome Higurashi, daughter of a wealthy banker, finds herself kidnapped and held for ransom by a notorious smuggler. Now, the only way she can escape is with her father's cooperation and the aid of...her doggy-eared kidnapper?

Specific Chapter Warnings: Language, mild violence, suggestive language/actions, OOC

Please heed these warnings EVERY CHAPTER. Seriously, don't skip them because I hate complaints that could have been avoided if people had just read the warnings.

_The Jewel_

A small square, no more than three inches to a side.

Yet that small square had the weight of his entire past.

It was an otherwise harmless looking letter. Beige…maybe taupe. Neatly folded and adhered. He wouldn't have given it a second glance until he had finished working through his work-related files had that one corner not peeked out beneath his briefcase. Of course, that was all it took. A tiny black spider with eight red-tipped legs.

Carefully picking the envelope up, he debated opening it. Did he dare?

For some reason, he knew that gliding his finger under the flap would be the snowflake that set off the avalanche. After all, it had been nearly seventeen years…why was _he_ doing this now? Perhaps he should have found the fearful man he was now shameful, but that was the man he was all those years ago. Now, he knew. He knew the dangers that this little envelope meant.

But he couldn't just leave it sitting on his desk unopened, a constant threat. Taking a deep breath, he slipped his forefinger under a loose corner of the flap, hesitating before shutting his eyes and ever so slowly tearing the envelope open.

He pulled the card out, torn between frustration and relief at the fact that there were no words on the first side. Unable to contain his trepidation, he turned the card to the other side, and paled at the short message.

_**You have my jewel.**_

_**Return it, or I will take yours.**_

For a long minute, he forgot to breathe.

Taiyo Higurashi placed the tiny square on his desk with shaky hands, immediately looking around the room of his study in paranoia now that the initial shock had worn off. How had it gotten in here? He was the only one with a key to the study. He was sure of it. There were no windows, and only one way in and out.

And how…how had he known? That he had given his daughter that little nickname was something between only him and Kagome.

Kagome…he thought, closing his eyes, his lids suddenly too heavy to hold up. She _was_ his whole world, the one shining jewel in his life, and had been for seventeen years since his wife had died. She looked so much like Kikyo, his first love, that it broke his heart just a bit every day, reminding him that she had been taken away far before her time. Kagome's eyes were really the only major difference; they told a different story than his late wife's. They were a dark blue, soft, warm and loving like he raised them to be, and held so much of the sweetness and innocence that Kikyo's never had.

Of course, it had been the grittiness and darkness in Kikyo that attracted him to her, the pure will to survive and endure that seduced him. He and his wife had been the same breed, raised by the same kill-or-be-killed rules, but Kagome? She was his jewel, his princess, and he'd be damned if he let his past consume her.

Still, how did _he_ know?

'We were being watched…' Taiyo realized. '…and they've already gotten in here,' he thought with rising panic, though even in the privacy of his study he refused to let it show. 'How did they…' Suddenly, he realized what this could mean. 'Kagome…!' Throwing the slip of paper onto the floor in his hurry, Taiyo sprung out of the chair and nearly pulled the door off its hinges as he yanked it open. Kagome would be heading home from volleyball practice and for all he knew, they were planning on kidnapping her right off the sidewalk. He had to get to her before they could!

* * *

"You'll get used to it!" Kagome laughed, giving her teammate another firm pat on her bottom. "We all do this!"

The girl flushed a bright red, refraining from immediately shying at the touch. It wasn't Kagome…it was just that it felt so…inappropriate. She almost wanted to look around to make sure no one was watching, even though it was only the two of them packing up after practice.

"B-but…I don't know, it feels weird! Especially 'cause these stupid pants barely cover my butt! Why do you guys do that again?" She asked.

"Oh, Sango," Kagome sighed dramatically. "We will soon induct you to the ways of spandex and butt-slapping*," she assured the blushing girl. The seventeen year old girl cocked her head to the side in thought as the two girls began to head out of the gym. "I don't really know _why_ we do it, just that ever since I joined the team, I've been slappin' and spankin' away with the rest of the girls." A mischievous smirk crossed Kagome's face and she leaned in to whisper to Sango conspiratorially, "Personally, I think most girls have some homo-erotic tendencies, and seeing a bunch of girls in spandex is just too great a temptation!" She finished with a giggle as her best friend and newest teammate turned tomato red.

"Kagome!" Sango practically shrieked. "I can't believe – I – uh – oh my god…" The older girl trailed off, massaging her temples in some combination of shock and embarrassment before melting into giggles of her own, unable to contain her amusement. "I hope you don't plan on taking out your 'homo-erotic tendencies' on me, little missy!" She whispered to her smirking friend.

"Well, shucks," Kagome frowned, snapping her fingers disappointedly. "There go my weekend plans!" The teen pouted, and crossed her arms in the perfect image of a spoilt child being denied her favorite candy. "Who do you expect me to do now?!"

The girls burst out into laughter as they pushed open the last set of doors, bringing the setting sun onto their faces. They made their way down the school steps and began to walk the brief trek home.

"Tsk tsk, Kagome. What would Papa Higurashi have to say if he heard his only daughter talking like this?" Sango teased, knowing the aforementioned man's incredible protectiveness – well, Kagome would more likely call it overbearingness – over his precious daughter.

"Oh god, don't even get me started on Dad," Kagome whined with a roll of her eyes. "I mean, I love him, but seriously, I don't think I've grown up at all since third grade in his eyes. If he had his way, I would just be suspended in time at eight years old," she complained, this time donning a real pout. "I mean, really!" Lowering her voice, she whispered to Sango, "I'm seventeen and I've never even kissed a boy!"

"Wow," Sango looked up at her friend in mild shock. She wouldn't have guessed that about Kagome. The girl was pretty, beyond pretty actually. Sango was sure her judgment was clouded by the fact that she loved the girl, but the way she saw it, Kagome was easily the most beautiful girl at their school of thousands. How she had managed to escape the attentions of all the boys was a mystery to say the least. "What about…I don't know…a boyfriend or something?"

The mention of a boyfriend only seemed to make Kagome more upset. "Ugh, do you remember Akira?"

"Umm…the captain of the basketball team Akira?" She had a vague idea, though the guy wasn't in her grade so she didn't have too strong a memory of him.

"Yeah. Well, when we were sophomores, he asked me out. And let me tell you, he was sooo cute! You being in your fancy junior-ness probably wouldn't remember. Anyway, long story short, I said yes, brought him home, and you know what hobby Dad suddenly decides to develop? Knife-sharpening." Kagome sent her friend a deadpan look. "On our front porch. Or in the kitchen. Or wherever Akira was." She paused. "…We didn't last long." The blue-eyed girl threw hands up in frustration, just as one of her shoes caught on a slightly raised square of pavement, nearly sending her to the ground had Sango not caught her.

Chuckling at her friends clumsiness, Sango set her back on her feet. "I don't know…seems like you need the extra care he's putting in," she joked and looked up at the house they'd arrived at, their brief conversation having gotten them back to Kagome's house safely.

Lightened up by her friend's humor, Kagome stepped onto the gravel of her front lawn, and waved a goodbye to her friend. "You're lucky we're here or I'd have to give your butt another spanking for that little comment," she threatened, giving her own spandex-covered bottom a smack as demonstration.

"Yeah, yeah," Sango waved her off. "I'll give you plenty of ass action tomorrow at practice," she promised, calling back as she continued down the sidewalk to her own house, six blocks down in the slightly less upscale part of town.

Kagome blew a raspberry at Sango's departing form. With another giggle at their antics, she turned around and made her way up the steps to the front door, when a sudden prickle at the back of her neck had her pausing just a moment. She spun around, the feeling of being watched suddenly rising in her.

"Sango?" She called out quietly, though the wind ate her words before they could travel far. Furrowing her brows, Kagome shook the strange feeling out of mind and stuck her key into the lock, ready for one of her favorite times of the day – despite what she said about her father: being welcomed home.

However, she found the front door being yanked open before she could even turn the key and found herself smashed into a solid wall of man.

"Daddy!" She cried out happily when she recognized the hug.

His strong arms clamped down around her. "Oh god, Kagome," he breathed out in pure relief.

Confused by his reaction, Kagome looked up at him in worry. "Is something wrong, Daddy?" She had never seen him so shaken. He might not have even realized it, but she could feel his heart beating furiously against her cheek.

Taiyo squeezed her tightly to him, wanting to wrap her up and hide her away so nothing could get to her. When a cool breeze rolled in through the open doorway, he set her down, doing a quick scan of the area outside, and shut the door. After double checking that the doors were locked, he finally looked down at his daughter. Kagome was still looking up at her father in confusion, and it occurred to him that he hadn't answered her question.

"Oh, nothing," he assured her, unable to give her the comforting smile he wanted to. He gently kissed her forehead as he had done every day she came home from school for over a decade, and smoothed out her uneven, sweat-dampened bangs. He was about to ask her how her day had went, as per their usual routine, when her volleyball uniform caught her eye.

As if able to tell what the sudden frown on his face meant, Kagome rolled her eyes and pushed herself out of his hug to grab her gym bag that had fallen at the front door. "Daaad," she warned, turning to head up the stairs. "Don't even get started!"

"Kagome, I don't like what they have you wearing for these practices!" Taiyo protested, giving her a stern look. He was all for letting Kagome try new things, play new sports, but when she asked to join the official volleyball team a few weeks ago, she never told him they made the girls dress like…like _that!_ "Why can't you wear those baggy shorts you used to have for clinics? Those I don't have any complaints about."

"It's comfortable, Dad, and therefore it helps us play better," Kagome explained as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, half-way up the stairs by that point.

The domineering man looked ready to fight with her over such a ludicrous statement – really, how could those shorts they were…_dipped!_...in possibly be more comfortable than basketball shorts – but shook his head and massaged his temples. Kagome was home safe, and after the scare, he didn't want to fight with her. Right now, he needed to figure out what the hell was going on and how he was going to keep his daughter from all this. With a sigh, Taiyo waved her off to her room and headed down to the kitchen to grab a snack. He'd spent so long staring at that godforsaken letter that he had missed dinner, and now the grumbling organ in his body was promptly reminding him that it needed to be fed.

Pausing a moment at his strange behavior, Kagome reluctantly accepted it as a temporary victory and continued the long trek to her room, her heavy bag in tow. After a harrowing journey that nearly took her life three times (okay, so she had a tiny habit of over-exaggerating), she was back in her room, eagerly throwing open the wooden doors.

'Dang! Why is it so cold in here?!' Her skin prickled with goosebumps, and in moments, she located the culprit: the open window that she must have left open in the morning.

'Ah, well, nothing a hot shower can't fix!' She thought, quickly stripping down her dirty jersey and shorts and tossing it, along with her school uniform, into the laundry hamper.

One steamy, long shower and two exhausting problem sets later, she was ready to pass out under her fluffy, blue sheets and never wake up. She cast a bleary-eyed glance at her clock.

"Nooo…" She groaned. It had just turned midnight, and she still had half an essay to write. With a pitiful whimper, she would have turned back to her laptop and dropped her head onto her forearms in a very common display of despair amongst students had an arm not suddenly wrapped itself around her torso, a rough hand covering her mouth before she could scream.

With a muffled yell, Kagome arched backwards, trying to pry herself from the grip, when she was yanked from her chair. Her knees scraped the edge of her desk violently as she was pulled out kicking and screaming. A damp cloth abruptly covered her mouth, and it took only a split second for Kagome to realize what it was. 'No!'

Unfortunately, she could already feel the blackness setting in. Just before it claimed her, she swore she heard a man yelling and golden eyes lifting her towards them.

* * *

She could feel the gentle up and down like the lulling of the ocean. There was nothing but the grinding of waves in the background, white noise that swayed her in her dreams. Up and down. Up and down. Side to side.

Bang!

Kagome felt her head hit something metal, the bendable material caving down then back up with her head.

"Oh!" With a gasp, she shot awake, white noise transforming into nothing but the sound of gravel against rubber. Furiously blinking her eyes, she tried to adjust to the darkness, but it persisted, and after a futile minute, Kagome realized that she could feel a loose cloth wrapped around her head, blackening her surroundings.

'Oh god, oh god…I was kidnapped…and now he's driving me somewhere to do god knows what to me!' She tried not to let the panic sink in as she recalled what had happened before she fainted. She instinctively curled in on herself, when she realized that her hands and feet had been completely bound. Before she could even attempt a struggle, a rough turn sent her flying into of the car walls and Kagome inadvertently let out a squeak of pain, freezing at the sound. If she was in a trunk, then maybe her kidnapper hadn't heard her, she prayed.

A man's voice quickly answered that prayer with a big, fat "NO", signed "Love, God/Buddha/Ra/Anubis/every stinking star in the universe."

"Damn it, guys. Strap that stupid girl down or something. That racket's giving me a goddamned headache."

Freezing in terror at the harsh voice, Kagome impulsively jerked at the bindings around her wrists. Whoever that was, he did not sound happy.

She heard another voice, one that came closer to her, call back more calmly. "Might I suggest we simply remove the hood and let the girl balance herself?"

"We can't do that," a third voice rang out. "She'll see us and shit."

"She will see all out faces eventually. I doubt Naraku's going to leave her head in a bag the whole time," the second voice reasoned.

Another rough turn had Kagome rolling and crashing into the opposite metal wall.

"Just do whatever you have to, fucking hell!" The first voice cursed again.

"Here goes," she heard the second man say, and suddenly she was blinking frantically at the light and at the four – no, two…she was just seeing double – two faces peering at her. She was in…the back of a truck, she realized. The truck was dark, and she could barely see anything past their faces.

One man looked at her almost curiously, his violet eyes wide and soft, and Kagome had the feeling she was being absorbed, his eyes drawing her in. She had wanted to scream as soon as the hood had been lifted, but it almost seemed…unreasonable…to scream when her captive looked so kind.

"Well," the violet-eyed man started, "You really _are_ as pretty as they say."

What? Oh my god. She was _not_ blushing at what her _KIDNAPPER_ said. If her hands had been unbound, Kagome would have slapped herself.

"Keh!"

Spinning her head around to look at the source of the other voice, Kagome found her gaze trapped on a second man. The first thing her mind processed was that his eyes were _golden_. They shone with a fiery light, scrutinizing her face with force that she almost fell back despite being able to see. Her words caught in her throat, the teen having never been on the receiving end of a look so intense that she wanted to both curl into herself and spread herself bare for his gaze to devour.

Damn it! What were with her traitorous thoughts?! Kagome mentally ranted, flushing profusely at the thought of being spread bare for the man. Where the hell had _that_ come from? It hadn't seemed sexual when she thought it. It had just felt like he was seeing straight through her skin, his eyes penetrating to her very core, and the sheer authority in the look made her want to submit.

In a second, she composed herself as best she could, compelling her eyes back to the kinder man, and spoke. "I-I…" She stuttered nervously and wet her lips before continuing. "I don't kn-now what you w-want, but whatever it is, I don't have it," she implored. "Please, if it's m-money or – "

"Keh!" The man interrupted again as if she hadn't spoken. "She's not that pretty. Not very bright either."

Well, _jeez_. Never one to take someone's crap sitting down – well, she didn't have a choice in sitting down this time – Kagome could feel her temper rising at the insult. Who the hell was this guy? In the darkness of the large truck with at least three men she couldn't even properly see, Kagome would be lying if she said she wasn't terrified, which is why she welcomed the anger, hoping it would drown out some of her fear.

"_Look_," she addressed him, mustering up as much courage as she could and facing him head on. "If it's money you…" It took a great amount of restraint not to say _assholes_, "…people want, we don't have much." Sure, they weren't poor by any means, but she and her father were upper middle class at best, and they definitely didn't have enough to warrant a kidnapping. "Please, just let me go, and I swear I won't tell the police or anything. It'll be just like – "

An angry grunt interrupted from the front seat, beyond the metal separator. "I change my mind. I like the racket better than the stupid bitch's voice. Shut her up." He demanded.

The violet-eyed man moved to action, stepping forward. Kagome panicked, frantically backing up until her back hit a wall. "W-wait!" She begged in a whisper, terrified that the driver would hear her.

He waved his hands placatingly. "I'm not going to hurt you." He took a seat closer to her place on the ground and began rummaging for something in a cardboard box behind her. His movement had brought him into the light, so Kagome got her first good luck at one of her kidnappers. His kind smile caught her off guard for the briefest moment. This was the strangest kidnapping crew she had ever come across. Well, she corrected herself, she'd never been kidnapped before so that wasn't saying much…but still, the movies had it all wrong. The man that had brought himself closer to her was one of the sweetest looking people she'd ever seen. His cheeks and jaws had a slim smoothness to them, the lightest wrinkles around his eyes that could only be from smiling. Still, she warned herself to be cautious. What was the saying? The face of a Buddha often hid the fangs of a viper.

Hesitantly, Kagome ventured another look at the man that had made all sort of funny things flutter in her stomach, most of which felt highly unpleasant. His amber eyes latched onto her for another unbearably long minute, then abruptly looked away. While he was obviously a jerk, he didn't really scare her either, Kagome thought, though she couldn't tell if that was bravery or naiveté. He hadn't moved from the shadows, but even still, she hadn't sensed anything menacing from him.

"I'm afraid, Kagome," the violet-eyed man began, drawing her eyes back to him, "that it's not your money our…employer wants." She didn't bother asking how her knew her name, but it was unsettling nonetheless; it seemed to exacerbate the fact that these people clearly already knew her and she was still in the dark about everything.

When he said no more and only offered an apologetic smile, Kagome swallowed her anxiety and quietly asked, hyper-aware of the silence that meant her words were much more likely to be carried up front. "Then what does he want from me? Please, I don't know who you think my father is but he wouldn't have anything that – "

"_Miroku_." The quiet threat reverberated from the front of the car. "I told you to shut that bitch up." Kagome felt shivers run down her back at the pure hatred his voice radiated, having no idea what she – or the young man named Miroku – had done to earn it.

"Sorry about this. Our driver is in a worse mood than usual," he apologized, whispering the last part quietly so that only she could hear. Then, before she could protest, he forced a gag into her mouth. She put up a mild struggle, choking at the dusty taste of the gag. Firm hands came down on her shoulders and tilted her so she was lying sideways on the carpeted floor. "Lie down, and this will all be over soon if your father cooperates." He gave her another smile, carefully adjusting her so she was comfortable on the floor. She was on the verge of thanking him, unable to comprehend how a criminal could be so _nice_, when she suddenly felt a very firm squeeze to her breasts.

Squealing in absolute shock and nearly breaking her back to get away from the unwelcome touch, Kagome kicked backward at the offending man, desperately trying to wiggle away. She took an acute satisfaction at the loud bang she heard from behind and the accompanying pained grunt. 'How _dare_ he?!' Her mind asked furiously, wanting nothing more than to rip that gag out and tell off the pervert! 'And just when I was starting to think he was the only decent one!'

Thankfully, it seemed she wasn't the only one pissed off at Miroku's perverted groping. "Fuck! Miroku, can you not keep your goddamned hands to yourself for a fucking minute?!" The golden-eyed man yelled. He got into a crouch from his seated position to drag Miroku back to their original seats, inadvertently bringing himself into the light for the first time.

Suddenly, Kagome forgot that she had just been very inappropriately groped as she caught sight of the man. His hair shined like silver rivers flowing down his back, swaying with his every tiny movement. Though he didn't look at her as he pulled Miroku off the ground, she could tell that his golden eyes seemed to gleam even more fiercely in the light. Atop his head, she saw…dog ears!

What.

'I was kidnapped by a _cosplayer?!_' Yes, Kagome reaffirmed to herself, this was the _strangest_ criminal crew she had ever heard of. 'Maybe they're like a dress-up crew,' she tried to reason. She felt compelled to ask why he looked so supernatural but something told her that the criminals might not be up for a round of chit-chat – not that she could do much but drool out the question anyway with the gag in her mouth.

Then, as if they were beams of light, Kagome felt his eyes on her again. She froze, staring up at him in wonder. She wasn't much into the cosplaying scene but even she had to admit that he was almost unfairly attractive. However, something powerful simmered beneath his skin, something that made her limbs tingle – and she was _not_ talking about the muscles rippling under his shirt.

For a moment, his face contorted to anger. Then it seemed to soften to something she dared to call confusion. He looked ready to say something to her, but what it was she would never know because Miroku chose that moment hack out his next words.

"I-Inuyah – a" A cough wracked his frame. "_Damn!_" Miroku patted his chest, massaging it painfully, and looked down at her. "You pack a lot more than I was expecting."

Had she had a reply to that, she wouldn't have been able to give it anyway considering the uncomfortable gag in her mouth.

Luckily, 'I-Inuyah – a' shared her thoughts in his own words. "Just keep your hands off he – to yourself, you perv," he demanded, quickly correcting himself.

"Yessir, Inuyasha," Miroku managed out, though he still sounded strained.

"If you two don't fucking shut up in the next five seconds, I'm going to go back there and kill you, too!" The driver suddenly burst out again, slamming the brakes harshly as if to prove his point. Kagome threw her hands out in front of her, trying to brace herself.

"Shit! Calm the fuck down!" The man named Inuyasha growled back, the rumbling bouncing off the metal walls of the truck. "What the hell's your problem?!"

She heard a violent clashing of...something in the front seat before the driver yelled back. "None of your goddamned business, _half-breed_."

It seemed the truck froze in the seconds that followed. Kagome didn't understand what was happening and she had only a guess what the insulting word meant, but she could see even through the darkness that Miroku's eyes had locked on Inuyasha, and that the silver-haired man had tensed dangerously at the metal barrier between the driver and the truck container that held them. Had she not known that it was impossible for a man to rip metal with his bare hands, she would have feared for the driver's life.

Nothing happened for what seemed like forever. Then, Kagome heard the familiar screeching of brakes, and the truck rolled to a tense stop.

"Keh."

As if a chisel breaking a dam, the softly muttered word brought the world back in motion. Kagome vaguely heard the sound of the driver – or it might have been some quietly invisible passenger for all she knew – exit in the front, but her eyes had refocused on the otherworldly man who had turned from his angry stance and was now stalking towards her.

A moment ago, he had looked ready to kill, and for a brief second, when he pulled her off the ground, she felt fear course through her at the thought that he planned on taking his anger out on her.

"Calm down, bitch," he commanded with an almost softness in his tone as if able to sense her fear. "I'm not gonna hurt you."

It would have been a nice sentiment had he not then promptly slung her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Of course, she let him know exactly how happy she was about that with some very heated, _very intimidating, mind you_, mumbles from behind the gag.

The back doors of the truck were wrenched open with a loud screech of metal, but before Kagome saw the ground beneath the wheels, her carrier paused at the edge of the container.

"The fuck do you want?" The shoulder under her ribcage rumbled slightly as he spoke.

"Give me the girl."

Maybe it was just instinct talking, but Kagome did _not_ want to fall into the hands of the driver. She cast a look back, managing to catch a glimpse of the man that seemed to hate her without having even met her. Like Inuyasha, he had an otherworldly look about him. His skin glowed purple, a poisonous, dangerous purple that frightened her. And in the same places where the man who had her in his arms had his furry ears, this man had two horns. Again, she felt the same prickle up and down her body, but this time, Kagome couldn't tell if it was just pure terror.

'Oh god, I don't think that guy's a cosplayer.' The thought floated through her head, before she smashed it dead. Why did she always think the dumbest things when she needed to focus on…oh, I don't know…_getting away from her kidnappers!_

"I can carry her in just fine," Inuyasha barked back.

In a split second that her mind couldn't even process, she was yanked off of Inuyasha and was facing one of the most terrifying faces she had ever seen. His eyes were tinged red, and the veins around his mouth protruded grotesquely. No, he was not the ugliest person she might have seen, but every part of her screamed to run at the sight of him.

"You do what you're fucking told, _half-breed_."

Behind her, she could hear Miroku shout something and struggle to restrain his friend but she lost focus on what was happening when he turned his eyes back to her. She tried to keep the fear from showing in her eyes, looking up at him as bravely and defiantly as she could.

"You little bitch." Somehow the term – while offensive no matter who said it – had been a lot less threatening when it had come from Inuyasha. "I don't know what you're doing to my head, but it's about to stop." The man finished with a cruel smile. He gently trailed a hand up her sides, to her neck, then to her cheeks in a mocking caress.

And in one smooth motion, he slammed her head against the truck wall and the world turned black.

* * *

**Author's Note**:

As some of you may have seen in the poll I had in my profile, this was one of many stories I've been considering, and I ended up choosing it! I've had this first chapter written for pretty much forever, and since I successfully managed to update my other stories in the past two weeks, I decided to finally put it up.

As usual, please review and leave your thoughts/critiques/hopes and dreams/life story behind for me to read! It will make me happy ^-^ (and I really am trying to improve my writing so let me know where you find it lacking!)! Until next time!


	2. The Dog and the Past

**A Long Way Home**

Summary: Kagome Higurashi, daughter of a wealthy banker, finds herself kidnapped and held for ransom by a notorious smuggler. Now, the only way she can escape is with her father's cooperation and the aid of...her doggy-eared kidnapper?

Specific Chapter Warnings: Language, violence, implied rape, implied prostitution, mild sexual situation (non-consensual), OOC

Arr! Ye be warned!

_The Dog and the Past_

"Mmhhghh..." A pained groan filled the air.

Kagome blinked at the sound, drawn from the muddiness of her mind by it, and realized that she had been the one that uttered it. Before she could process the thought, a rat suddenly scurried across her vision and she instinctively let out a scream, trying to back away, but a firm hand quickly covered her mouth and another pressed against the back of her head.

A sharp pain rang through her as the hand at her neck pressed on what she instantaneously realized was a very large, _very painful_ bump on her head. She moaned in agony against the hand at her mouth as she felt a violent dizziness run through her.

"Oi! Shush!" A voice whispered out harshly in the silence. "Or you'll get us _both_ killed."

Fighting the urge to retch, Kagome shut her eyes and relaxed just the slightest in her restraints.

Wait...restraints?

The previous night's events came back to mind and Kagome mentally groaned. So it _hadn't_ just been an awful dream. She really had been kidnapped and now she was stuck in some gross dungeon cell, chained up like a wild animal. All she wanted to do was bundle up into a ball and sleep until this was all over, but she willed herself to be brave and fight through this.

Ready to scream her lungs out for help, she felt a sudden iciness at the back of her head and flinched, accidentally biting down on the hand at her mouth.

"Shit! Watch it!" The voice complained, but the iciness remained firmly on her head until Kagome felt the throbbing dull to a numb ache..

When the initial coldness passed, Kagome opened her eyes again, strained her eyes to look backward and withheld a gasp as she caught sight of shimmering silver hair.

It was the otherworldly one, she remembered, trying to scrounge up images of the three from the truck. It was... 'Inuyasha...' Even saying his name in her head made her flush nervously as if he could hear her thoughts. 'Ugh, really.' It was not normal to act like a stupid teenage girl with a crush around the man that kidnapped you. Maybe it was just Stockholm Syndrome, she assured herself. That or she was just all sorts of messed up in the head. Regardless of her strange reaction to him, she furrowed her brow in confusion.

He was icing her wound. That much was clear enough, but why would her kidnapper be helping her in the first place? She mumbled incessantly behind his hand, trying to communicate that she wanted it off her mouth, and he complied reluctantly.

"What are you doing here?" She rasped out, mouth feeling drier than the Sahara, leveling her eyes back at him as well as she could with her hands bound behind her back. A small cup of water appeared magically at her lips, and she expressed her welcome by tilting her head back and drinking it with the gusto of...well, of a girl who hadn't had any water for nearly a day. Kagome wasn't much for metaphors.

Inuyasha looked down from where he was holding the bag of ice. "Keh!" He scoffed. "I'm making sure you don't die from your head wound, ungrateful bitch," he muttered, carefully wiping the wound of blood.

Kagome clenched her teeth to refrain from being provoked by the insult but couldn't help biting back. "Yeah, well how about you let me go and I'll call it even for hitting my head," she responded with a snort.

"Wow! That's brilliant! Why didn't I think of that?" The sarcasm in his voice practically dripped itself all over her.

"Pfft..." Kagome breathed out disappointedly. 'And I half-expected that to work.'

"'Sides, it wasn't even me that knocked you out, alright?" He reminded as he secured the bag of ice to her head. "Don't mix me up with that shithead Goshinki," he spat out the name like a curse.

"You're all the same to me," she barked back angrily, semi-aware that she might be taking her anger out on the wrong person. Goshinki...he must have been the one that, quite frankly, scared the crap out of her...the purple one. Speaking of which... "Why are you all so...strange-looking? Or do you guys just always like to dress up when you steal teenage girls out of their bedrooms?"

"F-feh!" He sputtered back in reply, showing the first sign of surprise. "None of your business, wench! Do you always make small talk with your kidnappers?!"

Withholding a growl of her own at what she was quickly picking up as a tendecy of his to call her insulting names, she muttered, "I try not to make a habit of it."

Letting out a resigned sigh, Kagome accepted her fate for the moment. She was lucky, she guessed. The perverted one and this one – Inuyasha – didn't seem too bad. She remembered the man, the perverted one, mentioning something about their boss, but that didn't change the fact that these guys were criminals – top dog or not.

She winced when his hand reached a tender area of the bump, swearing at the sharp pain that shot through her.

"Yeah whatever, you go ahead and tell Goshitski that we're all the same the next time _he_ comes down here to make sure you're not dead," he mocked, though his hand remained gentle as he meticulously wiped away any blood in her matted hair.

He had a point..."Why are you even doing this?" She asked, her voice softening.

"Like I said, just trying to make sure you don't die," he answered gruffly, though she swore there was something...tenderness?...in there.

Maybe he wasn't one of the bad guys. Maybe he was a servant bad guy or something. Maybe he was just stuck in a bad situation and owed the 'boss' a lot of money and was stuck doing his dirty work – like kidnap young girls, Kagome thought with a glimmer of hope.

'Wow, why don't I just write the script and send it off to Hollywood?!' She mentally ridiculed herself for being the idiotic thought. But still...if he wasn't as personally involved with this, then maybe...

With a deep breath, Kagome took the chance.

"I-Inuyasha," she whispered, the word sending another unwelcome wave of relaxing warmth through her. "Inuyasha, right?" She tried again, this time more confidently, and turned her head just enough to look him in the eyes.

And once again, found herself nearly losing her thoughts in his piercing golden orbs.

"Yeah," he grunted out. "What?"

"_Please_," she whispered, "I promise if you let me go, I'll get my dad to give your boss whatever he wants. I _swear – _"

"Don't bother," he cut her off, dropping the bloodied towel that he had been wiping her with onto a tray. "Naraku's keeping you 'til Taiyo gives him what he wants, and nothing you say will change Naraku's mind."

"But you can explain to him! You understand, right? It's a win-win for everyone," She tried, feeling a sense of desperation as he pulled away from her, and chided herself for missing the warmth. If she could just get him to agree...!

"And it would do jack shit." He picked up the trash from cleaning her wound and stood up to leave. "I do what Naraku says, and you should learn to do the same if you wanna get out of this in one piece."

Feeling a rush of indignation, Kagome glared at him defiantly. _Like hell!_ She loved her father like no one else, and she hardly listened to _him_, so if some stupid gangster thought that she was going to just roll over on command, he had another thing coming.

"Unlike _you,_ I'm not this Naraku's _dog,_" she growled out stubbornly, ignoring the sudden tenseness in Inuyasha. "I guess I was wrong," she bit out. "Do you just do whatever he says, sit and bark on command?"

As soon as the words left her mouth, she regretted them. She was playing with fire, and that might have just gotten her killed. It wasn't like she didn't realize it, but she just wanted someone to take her frustration out on.

He swung around to face her, and for a moment, Kagome throat closed in fear. He was _pissed_, and it showed. After a tense second, he pivoted back to the door just as swiftly as he had turned to face her and slammed it shut.

Then, Kagome was left with nothing but the utter darkness, the throbbing in her head, and her thoughts.

'Shit.' She thought miserably to herself as she tried not to think on the fact that the room was pitch black and she _knew_ that there had been rats scurrying around just minutes earlier. 'Maybe that was a little uncalled for.' He might have been just another stupid criminal, but he _had_ been down here trying to fix her wound. And by the sound of it, he had partially risked his own skin to do it, she thought, feeling a twinge of guilt.

Perhaps making enemies with the men who had her life in their hands was not the best strategy. Still, she was just trying to do whatever it took to get free.

The feeling of tiny rat feet scurrying across her leg suddenly startled her out of her thoughts, drawing a muffled shriek.

She shut her eyes – not that it really mattered in the pitch black room – willing herself to believe that she was safe, there were no rats, her father was on his way, and that she was getting out of this whole mess soon. It wasn't much of a comfort, but it passed the time.

* * *

Somehow, slamming doors always sounded more satisfying than it felt.

Inuyasha stormed down the stone halls, through the dimly lit path of the warehouse basement, and let his anger heat him in the freezing air. Somehow, even with the rather medieval torches lining the walls, the basement always chilled him to the bone, a remarkable feat considering what he was...

...which brought him back to the reason why he was so pissed in the first place...

'Fucking wench,' he cursed to himself, replaying her words in his head. She'd called him Naraku's dog, asked whether he _barked_ on command, he thought, scoffing angrily at the ridiculousness. He should have never bothered to help her. He didn't know why he had come down here in the first place.

To keep her from dying. That's what he told her, but it was a weak farce at best. It was almost as if he couldn't keep himself away, and that made his stomach churn unpleasantly.

'Kagome...' He tested the name in his head, not sure whether he wanted to say it with anger or twisted wonder. He almost couldn't believe that she was there. She looked so much like her...mother. And yet, all it took was one good look into her eyes and the resemblances stopped there. Then, there was the fact that they smelled nothing alike. He hadn't know what he expected, but the girl smelled...unique, like something sweet and soft and refreshing...and though part of him hated acknowledging this, it was absolutely magnetic. Shaking off the ludicrous thought, he swung open another set of doors, giving a distracted nod at two of Naraku's men – human gunmen that Naraku kept manned at all entry points in case some idiot tried to escape – at the exit to the building.

He walked briskly to a neighboring warehouse, trying to focus on what he would say when he met with Naraku to update him, but his thoughts remained stubbornly attached to the girl he had left behind in one of the cells.

It was strange to think of it, that the girl they had brought into Naraku's clutches was the daughter of the woman that had started it all.

Though, he thought sardonically as he recalled Kagome's insult, the two had the same bite. After all, Kikyo...she had said something eerily similar the day she had betrayed him.

At the reminder, his mind brought him unwillingly to the past.

He could remember everything about the way she looked that morning down to the slight sheen of sweat on her brow. Sleek, dressed in a soft brown cloak, covered from head to toe, and yet she still exuded something seductively dangerous. She had always been so tempting, from the day he had seen her in Naraku's arms nearly twenty years ago. Other than Naraku himself, she'd been the only one who'd shown him any semblance of kindness, and he had once hoped that she would be his future. That all changed the day she came to him, hand extended to his while telling him that she had chosen another man.

"_Come with us, Inuyasha." To anyone else, it might have sounded like begging, but he knew Kikyo did not beg._

"_What the hells are you talking about?" He remembered feeling jumbled, his mind in a disorganized haze. She had woken him up at the crack of dawn, caught him off guard._

"_Come on, I don't have time to explain."_

_Why, even when she was asking something of him, even with her hand extended to his, did she always sound so angry with him?_

"_Explain what? What the fuck are you talking about?"_

"_We've found a way to get out of this...away from Naraku." Her words had been whispered, but they struck him with full force all the same._

"_What...?"_

"_Inuyasha." He remembered looking at those sharp brown eyes whose meaning had never failed to elude him, "Just come with me. I'll tell you everything after we're out of here. Taiyo is taking care of the others, but he can only hold them off for so long."_

_And that name was all it took for him to make his decision before he even thought about it. "Taiyo, huh? So you're leaving with him." It was a struggle to keep the bitterness out of his voice, one that he didn't bother fighting. There was no way she didn't know how he felt, and yet here she was, trying to get him to run away with her lover. Had she ever even looked his way?_

"_Not now." That time, there was a hint of pleading in her voice. "We can figure this out when – "_

"_When what? We miraculously manage to get away from Naraku and I have nowhere to go because you've decided you wanna fuck Taiyo for the rest of your life?" He spat out the name like filthy water in his mouth. Did Kikyo have any idea what she was even doing? What Naraku would do when he caught them? __**He**__ had been the one that protected her from the worst of Naraku, not Taiyo._

"_For christ's sake, Inuyasha, this isn't about us. Why are you being like this?"_

"_Because you're not thinking this through! You think you're gonna just run away with Naraku's supplier and he'll leave you alone to live some stupid dream life?" He stood up from his wooden bunk and grabbed her shoulders, wanting to shake some sense into her._

_Her eyes hardened in determination. "You don't honestly think I'm that stupid. We have insurance, something that will keep him from coming after us, at least until Taiyo gets us out of the country."_

_Despite everything he'd said, his interest was piqued. Insurance? "What do you mean?"_

"_I can explain this all to you after we're out safely." _

"_How do you know I'm going to let you go? I could tell Naraku right now and you wouldn't be able to stop me." It was a low blow, but he couldn't help it. His mind was already made up. Taiyo was always dreaming up some big scheme, and now, somehow he'd even managed to rope Kikyo along into it. It would be safer for her in the long run, he tried to convince himself. Naraku didn't just let people waltz out his doors, insurance or not, and he wasn't about to leave the only home he knew, the only place _he_ belonged on one of Taiyo's whims._

_For a moment, Kikyo seemed to look at him with pity, before that turned into anger. "For once in your life, Inuyasha, can you stop being Naraku's lap dog?" She bit out, knowing the barb would cut exactly where she wanted. "You spend every waking moment barking and biting at his command – "_

_Infuriated at the insult, Inuyasha shoved her away and growled furiously. "And you're his whore, so I think we both know who's higher on the food chain here."_

"_That's the point, Inuyasha. I don't want to spend the rest of my life like this, and unless you want to spend the rest of yours serving that bastard..." She trailed off, looking at him with an unreadable expression. With a sigh, she shook her head and slowly walked toward him, her arms open. That in itself should have sent off warning bells, but all he could think was that she was right. He _was_ going to end up being Naraku's dog for the rest of his life at this rate. "Nevermind. I'm sorry," she whispered as she wrapped her arms around him just the slightest. "I shouldn't have said those things."_

_He'd been so embarrassingly caught up in the fact that this was the first time he could ever remember being hugged – pitiful embrace that it was – that he hadn't registered the tiny pinch at his neck until it was too late._

"_Hu..." Her arms fell away beside her and suddenly, the unwelcome call of sleep became too tempting to ignore._

"_I really am sorry."_

That was the last thing he heard before waking up to the chaotic aftermath of Taiyo and Kikyo's escape plan. A number of feelings had raced through him, betrayal, anger, and an overwhelming sense of defeat among them. She had drugged him when he refused to go with her, but a tiny part of him refused to let go of the hope that she did it to protect him. To the day, he couldn't remember a time when Naraku had been more angry, and he was all but exempt in their escape.

All he _had_ known for so many years was that she was right. Whatever insurance she and Taiyo had found worked...until now.

He didn't know how to feel that Kikyo's young daughter had been plucked from right under Taiyo Higurashi's nose. On the one hand, it only confirmed what he thought all those years ago. Taiyo Higurashi was an idiot who couldn't keep his mouth safe from his foot even if his life depending on it. On the other, the girl might have been nothing more than another stupid teenager, but she was an innocent one. Kikyo might not have been, but all it had taken was one look in her eyes last night for him to see that her daughter...that Kagome had been kept safe from their world. Hell, she'd asked him if they played dress up!

"Stupid girl," he muttered to himself, though he could feel the anger from earlier drain out of him. All he knew was that having the girl here was less than comfortable, and he wanted Higurashi to pay up and get her out of here so he could move on.

He continued up a flight of stairs and through a long corridor to Naraku's office, knowing that he would want an update. Before long, his feet had reached the threshold. He could smell Naraku inside, and raised a hand to knock on the door, hesitating for a tenth of second when Naraku's voice hummed through the air in the strange way it always did.

"Come in, Inuyasha."

Not bothering to stall, Inuyasha opened the door and stepped into the room. Naraku sat directly in front of him, his black eyes piercing straight through him. Naraku had looked exactly the same for all the years that Inuyasha had known him. Soft, flowing black hair, dark, hooded eyes and slippery smooth skin. That in itself wasn't strange – in fact, Inuyasha could hardly remember the last time a youkai aged – but still, something was always off...as if Naraku looked just a bit different each time.

"Please, take a seat." The black-haired man welcomed him into his 'office.'

He gestured to one of the cushioned seats in front of the desk, and Inuyasha found himself repressing the urge to fidget and squirm at the disconcerting feeling of this familiar charade. Something about the way Naraku liked to pretend their meetings were some sort of therapy lesson rather than what they were – updates on some task to kidnap, kill or acquire one thing or another – set him on edge.

It was like a reminder that Naraku could turn from friendly, fatherly figure to the type of man that would happily feed his enemies their own fingers and toes.

"How are you, Inuyasha?"

"Good," he said simply, used to this pretense by now.

"Excellent," Naraku smiled kindly. "How is our friend Kagome doing? She wasn't too much trouble to acquire I hope."

Inuyasha grunted in the negative, feeling distinctly agitated at the way he described the girl like a novelty item. "Goshinki injured her head, but she's fine otherwise."

Naraku frowned, and Inuyasha sensed a change to the more threatening Naraku coming. His red eyes turned to a set of papers that Inuyasha was fairly certain was only there for decoration. "I'll take care of Goshinki. He was told to leave the girl unharmed. In the meanwhile, I'll need someone to take care of the girl."

And by the slight quirk at the corner of Naraku's mouth, Inuyasha knew what he meant. "I don't want to be some stupid girl's babysitter. That's what the humans are for."

Naraku looked back at him coolly. "You'll do what I want you to do. I'll forgive your disobedience because I hadn't asked you yet, but you _are_ going to watch the Higurashi girl."

Wanting to curse at the prospect of spending more time with Kikyo's daughter, Inuyasha settled for something that was less likely to get him skinned alive. "How long do I have to look after the brat?"

"Now, now, that's not nice." And therapist Naraku was back. "It's only until Taiyo returns what is mine." With a pause, Naraku began twisting the vibrant band around his ring finger – another part of Naraku that Inuyasha had never seen him without. "I don't expect it will be too long. I have something planned for his daughter tomorrow that I think will...motivate him," Naraku finished.

Whatever that was, Inuyasha couldn't help the unsettling feeling in his gut. It was never good when Naraku smiled like that. If it weren't for the fact that they obviously had to keep the girl alive, he would have considered her a dead girl walking from that point on. Of course, when it came to Naraku, sometimes only the lucky ones got a clean death. Quashing the worry that surged at the thought of the innocent girl being subject to Naraku's punishments, he forced himself back to the present, refocusing his eyes on the impenetrable black eyes watching him.

Naraku stared at him for an unbearably long minute, as Inuyasha waited for his customary dismissal.

"Does she look like Kikyo?" The question came out of nowhere, catching him off-guard. Naraku reached a hand down for a small tea cup and poured himself a cup of tea, all while keep his eyes on Inuyasha's face.

"S-she..." Pausing briefly at his shaky start and his inexplicable nervousness, Inuyasha took a small breath. It wasn't a hard question to answer, but for some reason, the words weren't coming out. "A bit," he managed.

Naraku gave a knowing smirk and nodded, as though satisfied with his answer. "Good. It was a shame Kikyo died." Inuyasha furrowed his brows, unsure of where this turn in conversation was taking them.

Disregarding Inuyasha's perplexed stare, Naraku stood up without elaborating, leaving the steaming cup of tea at the center of the desk, right in between him and Inuyasha. Inuyasha watched as he looked to his right at a drawing draped on the wall, some diagram Naraku was always working on that was indecipherable to Inuyasha. Inuyasha eyed the drawing, noting the webbed lines that connected all the different nodes and portions together, and tried to figure out why it always looked slightly modified than the previous times he'd seen it, when Naraku finally broke the silence. "It will be nice to relive our time together with her daughter."

Then, before the disturbing suggestion could set in, Naraku waved him off. "You're dismissed."

The agitating feeling in his gut growing stronger, Inuyasha rose from the seat and turned stiffly to the door. He tried to ignore Naraku's eyes lingering on him and left the room as quickly as he came in. A brisk walk down the hallways brought him back out into the open concrete again, and without a word to the entry guards, he sprinted off into the lightly forested terrain a few blocks south of the secluded warehouses, seeking shelter on a familiar branch high above the rest of the world. He had his own quarters, of course, after living with Naraku and his men for so many years, but he needed somewhere quiet and peaceful right now to deal with everything in his head.

Naraku hadn't given him any assignments other than to keep the Higurashi girl alive, and that meant he was likely free for the rest of the day until he had to bring her a meal and water. However, for once, he wished he had something else to do other than think, because all he could think about right now was the girl that Naraku had just announced he was planning on raping. It shouldn't have sickened him any more than any of the other shit Naraku committed, but he had the feeling he would do almost anything short of getting himself killed to keep that from happening. Unfortunately, t_hat_ only confused him even more.

'Why the hell do I even care about some girl, Kikyo's daughter or not?' He mentally berated, wanting to rid himself of this misplaced sense of protectiveness. As there was no way Naraku would simply leave Kagome alone until Taiyo returned whatever he'd stolen from Naraku all those years ago, Inuyasha knew that feeling anything other than apathy towards the girl would be trouble.

He couldn't say he was ever happy here, but this, working for Naraku...it had worked for him so far. He learned to turn his mind off to the things he didn't want to see, lock away the deeds he hadn't wanted to do. It had kept him alive and functional for decades, long before Kikyo came around. _She_ had been a complication in the life Naraku had given him, one that, looking back on it, he partially-wished hadn't happened. Now that her daughter Kagome was here, he already knew in his gut that it would be the same...that somehow, someway, the girl was going to fuck with his life.

Leaning his head against the sturdy bark in frustration, Inuyasha closed his eyes, trying to will away the image of her face and those blue eyes that were warm and soft even when she had seen the face of her kidnappers. She might have tried to hide it when she glared at them, but all the evidence was there.

She had never seen a man killed, cut down before her eyes, never watched him tortured for information or for Naraku's own amusement, never heard anyone beg for death to put an end to his suffering...

'...and I don't want her to.' Inuyasha thought, frowning at the realization.

It wasn't that innocent people were never involved in Naraku's business. In fact, Naraku seemed to take a unique joy in corrupting people, but it was rare. Kidnapping regular civilians off the street and murdering them tended to draw too much attention to their world. But whatever it was that Taiyo had stolen, it was evidently enough

With a sigh, he rested his head as comfortably as he could against the tree. It was all pointless to think about. Kagome was going to be relatively unharmed as long as Naraku got what he wanted, and she would be out of his life before he knew it, just like Kikyo.

Until then, he would play babysitter. It might be a degrading job, but at least, he thought, it wouldn't keep him up at night.

* * *

Morning the next day, Inuyasha rose to the sound of screaming.

Shooting up from the cot that he'd been moved to while he had to watch the Higurashi girl, he threw open the door, heart pounding angrily in his chest as he ran to Kagome's cell.

As the metal door slammed open under the force of his hand, he nearly saw red at the sight. One of Naraku's men, a human Onigumo, was holding a dim candle in one hand and had his other slithered beneath her shirt on her breast. Kagome was struggling in her restraints, clearly trying to move her leg into a position to kick him. Inuyasha let out a fierce roar, drawing both of their attentions to him, and attacked Onigumo before the presence of the enraged newcomer could even register.

Slamming the perverted human against the stone wall with a clawed hand at his neck, Inuyasha squeezed the tender flesh beneath his fingers, a part of him taking pleasure at the five dots of red appearing swimming down Onigumo's neck.

"Wha-at the he-_ell!_" Onigumo choked out, clawing at Inuyasha's hold, the girl he had been previously molesting all but forgotten.

"Why the fuck are you down here?" Inuyasha growled with a barely restrained fury.

"J-just bringing the girl her food," Onigumo got out in a strained voice, still trying to pry off the hand that was keeping him from breathing.

Inuyasha threw him down to the floor, just by the open door. And stepped on the dropped flame to put out the fire. "_I'm_ taking care of her, you got that?" He let out a snarl that clearly warned Onigumo not to go near her again.

Holding a hand to his bleeding neck, Onigumo glared coldly at the intruder. "The fuck is wrong with you? I wasn't going to _rape_ the girl," he ground out, as if it that made everything better.

"Don't fucking touch her again," Inuyasha warned, tensing his claws in warning. When all he got in response was Onigumo's unyielding scowl, he crouched in warning, ready to attack again if Onigumo resisted. "Get out."

Onigumo knew a lost fight when he saw one. Without another word, the human stood up and slammed the door closed as he left, leaving Inuyasha and the stunned silent Kagome in the darkness.

Letting out a pent up breath, Inuyasha slowly loosened his stance and moved to a more familiar part of the cell. He switched on a light, bringing the half-cowering girl back into view. Still adjusting to the sudden artificial light, Kagome blinked rapidly up at him, trying to clear her vision. When Inuyasha finally came into view, Kagome resisted the urge to squirm under his intense stare. Remnants of raw anger lingered in the amber pools, and while she knew it wasn't directed at her, she couldn't help the shiver that ran down her spine. Half-formed thoughts raced through her head as she tried to process what she had just seen.

He moved towards the tray of food that Onigumo had brought in, bringing it up briefly to sniff for drugs that the human man might have snuck in, and when he was satisfied that the food was safe, he swiftly unlocked Kagome's cuffs, so she could move her hands freely and eat.

With a sharp gasp at the painful sensations that ran up and down her arms after having them cuffed and chained for a nearly a day, Kagome would have fallen over onto her food from the sudden lack of support had it not been for a sturdy arm catching her across her chest.

"He didn't hurt you?" He asked gruffly.

With a quick shake of her head, she let him lift her into a sitting position, withholding a wince at her throbbing joints, and whispered a quick word of gratitude. She heard him mumble something that sounded suspiciously like "clumsy girl," but despite the insult she couldn't muster up even the tiniest offense. Instead, she used her new freedom to sneak a look at the silver haired man. 'Inuyasha,' she repeated his name in her head again, taking in the man's appearance more closely than she had the last time she saw him.

She couldn't be sure because the room had only been lit by a candle, but she swore, earlier when Onigumo had groped her, that she saw him move faster than light itself. Then, there was the matter of his claws, which given by the blood on Onigumo's neck, were very real. 'Is he...not human?' The question itself seemed absolutely ridiculous.

It turned out that her furtive glances weren't as discreet as she hoped.

"Stop staring and eat."

"R-right," she stammered out, embarrassedly looking down and reaching for the surprisingly appetizing food. He was obviously going to wait until she finished her food before locking her back up like he had last night. She wanted to ask how much longer she was going to be here, when she was going to be returned, what they were going to do with her, why that slimy man from earlier had been here, and a million other questions, but restrained herself.

It was her second meal after being brought down into god knows where, and she still had no idea what was happening in the outside world. Other than the man that Inuyasha had attacked, no one else had come down here, and she was essentially left to ponder her life in the insanity-inducing, solitary darkness.

She had almost been relieved to hear the door opening this morning, willing to take her odd-looking kidnapper over nothing at all, at least until she saw the unfamiliar face.

He'd been disfigured beyond recognition by severe burns, but that wasn't what scared Kagome when he walked in with her meal. No, it was the disturbing grin he gave her that sent off warning bells. It was all the caution she needed before he dropped to her kneeling form on the floor and roughly grabbed at her inner thighs and slid that hand up her shirt. At the memory of his rough hand on her naked skin, Kagome blinked away tears and shuddered violently, wanting nothing more than to wash off the ghost touch.

Her hand shook in disgust and the plastic spoon fell to the floor with a soft clatter.

Inuyasha's eyes shot down at the noise, and she hastily apologized. Picking up the utensil, she tried not to think about the fact that it had fallen on rat-ridden floors and quickly resumed her meal.

He sat to her left, waiting in silence for her to finish. That left plenty of quiet for her mind to think, and it went automatically to the obvious topic occupying her thoughts: Inuyasha – more specifically, what he was. He was plainly different from her; if the ears hadn't given it away, then his claws and inhuman strength would have. What exactly that meant was still up in the air, though.

'Is he even human?' The question seemed absurd and ironic. Absurd because the only people capable of creating some sort of genetically modified, super-human, hybrid being – and that was the only thing he could possibly be – would be a powerful company or the government, and they wouldn't be using them to snatch teenage daughters of your average banker from their bedrooms. Ironic because of all the people she'd met so far...he felt the most _human_. Not human in the _homo sapiens_ sense – thank you, middle school biology – but in the he-cracked-jokes-and-wasn't-entirely-awful sense. Of course, that didn't change the fact that he was still a criminal.

As she picked at the food, not having much of an appetite given the circumstances, Kagome couldn't help wanting to ask him the million questions swarming in her head.

"Didn't Taiyo ever teach you not to pick at your food?" He finally spoke, grunting out the question.

"Huh...?" The name didn't register for a brief moment. "Oh! You mean Daddy – um, yeah, he did. Sorry," she apologized half-heartedly, bringing a small piece of bread to her mouth to satisfy him. However, what struck her was how familiarly he had used her father's name. Even his tone of voice...It almost sounded like he knew her father.

"Keh! Eat more. You're gonna need your strength later tonight," he stated calmly, turning back to face the empty wall.

Suspicions about his relationship with her father gone at his ominous words, Kagome immediately demanded, "What do you mean? What's going to happen to me?!"

"Calm down. Naraku's not going to kill you, if that's what you're worried about," Inuyasha assured, though he felt a sense of guilt at the way he was essentially soothing the lamb before the slaughter...or sort of slaughter, depending on whatever Naraku had planned for Kagome.

Nonetheless, it did the trick as Kagome visibly relaxed and resumed eating. They sat in a tense silence for another minute before Kagome finally gave in and asked, "What _is_ he going to do to me?"

"I don't know," he said honestly.

He would have turned back to the wall with that if the smell of fear and worry hadn't suddenly flooded her scent, and though he tried to ignore the almost instinctive rise of protectiveness in him, he couldn't help the need to rid her of the unpleasant scent and bring back her natural, soft smell back.

"It won't be too bad," he reassured, hoping that he wasn't straight-out lying. "He just wants to make sure Taiyo gives him whatever he wants." He was breaking every rule of interacting with their captives, but Inuyasha couldn't regret it when Kagome's scent started to return to normal, her eyes softening just the slightest in relief.

"O-okay," she whispered in response, the fact that she might be meeting the man behind her kidnapping and that he was dead serious about getting what he wanted starting to really hit her.

She could only pray that this Naraku man was like Inuyasha. He'd been kind to her thus far, if only because he had to keep her alive until she was returned, and while she wasn't going to judge him based on an hour of interaction max, he hadn't been cruel to her at all. In fact, just a few minutes earlier, he had seemed even...protective? Kagome wasn't sure that was the word she was looking for, but it lodged itself in her mind regardless.

The tray sliding out from under her hands brought her back to the present. It seemed that she had finished her food without even realizing it, and Inuyasha was about to head back out.

Her mind distracted by her thoughts, she only caught the last part of his sentence. "...be back for you later tonight." With that, he walked to the entrance and started to close the door.

Panic rushed through her briefly and Kagome cried out a "Wait!" before he could leave.

When he turned back to face her questioningly, Kagome found herself at a loss for words. Damn if it didn't feel like his eyes saw straight through to her soul.

'No, Kagome, you did not just think that,' she chastised herself.

Aware that he was waiting for her to speak, Kagome shakily began the apology that she should have given him last night when he brought her dinner. "S-sorry," she started, clearing her throat. "A-about yesterday I mean. What I said w-when you were icing my head. It wasn't nice...I guess." Feeling an utterly ridiculous sense of dread at the prospect that he would reject her silly apology, Kagome lowered her eyes to the ground.

To her amazement, a snicker reached her ears. Darting her eyes back up in surprise, she saw Inuyasha looking at her with amusement in his eyes.

"Feh – s'ok." With a shrug, he turned to leave the cell again. "Sorry about kidnapping you...wasn't nice...I guess." Then with something daringly close to a grin, he shut the door behind him, leaving Kagome with the light on this time and a small smile of her own.

* * *

Author's Note:

I'm thinking of keeping most of the chapters somewhere around 5,000-6,000 words per chapter so they won't all have that much meat and action to them (as you may be able to tell). I went a little over this chapter, but the goal is to update this story in a more timely manner (as I have a bad habit of letting the intervals between story updates drag on for a long time!), so let me know if you guys prefer longer or shorter chapters (obviously with longer or shorter intervals, respectively). My bad if there are any accidental spelling or grammatical mistakes. I'm not a fan of proofreading as I'm not doing this for a grade ^.^!

Anyway, thank you to anyone and everyone who reviewed the first chapter! I hope you enjoy the second!


End file.
